Happy Ramblings...

Why is it so difficult, TRULY difficult, for some people....MOST people...to be happy?

I think it's because it is a choice. Not always the easiest choice. There is no true happiness in things. We are conditioned to want Things by the media and those who have so very MANY things to sell us!! We are led to believe that we NEED those things, and that they will be the source of our happiness and they will give us status among our peers. Materialism is replacing spirituality, because we are so sick of organized religion. So we seek happiness somewhere, and media stuffs it in our collective face, by way of THINGS! Buy Buy Buy! Feed the corporate agenda!

But all my capitalism-rage aside, the truth is: Things leave you. Finding "happiness" in things makes us fear that we will one day lose them. Then that feeling we call happiness will dissolve away and we will be left feeling empty instead. So we cannot find happiness in things, or other people, or in anything that can one day leave us. We find false contentment in the things and situations in our lives that are fleeting. Well, ALL things are fleeting! ALL situations are passing times in our lives. Nothing lasts forever and the only thing guaranteed in life is DEATH!! Well how is that for depressing!?

Not at all! We can find comfort in this idea. Nothing lasts forever. Good or bad, nothing in your life will stay the way it is. With bad things we judge this as good, and with the good things in our lives, we judge it as bad when they leave us. When really...it just IS.

Complete acceptance of this fact is what can help us find true happiness. Que sera sera; whatever will be, will be. Life will give us a variety of situations to tackle throughout. Those that are uncomfortable and difficult will help us learn about ourselves and our world, if we are open to it, if we choose to see it. And those that are good will pass, and we will be glad to have had the chance to experience them, and always know that there are more good things to come.

I am a big advocate for Vipassana meditation. (In spite of the fact that it is one of the things in my life that has passed.) It is a lovely representation of this. Try sitting in one position for an hour. Ouch. Try sitting for one hour without moving, and moving your attention systematically around your body. Notice the euphoria... and notice the pain...notice the itching. Notice how everything that rises up, passes away (no dirty euphemismic -if that were a word- pun intended). This meditation trains our minds to be masters of detachment. And by default, we inherently learn and accept that all things pass, and that there is no good or bad, all things just are.

The sensations that pass through a body that remains still for one hour are brutal, let me tell you... But you know what? Before I spent ten hours a day for ten days meditating this way...(better make that 8 hours, I couldn't drag my sorry ass out of bed for that 430am meditation, so I'd turn my bedroom light on when they went by with the morning gong, until they were done, then shut off the light and sneak some more sleep before breakfast)...I had never known that itches went away on their own! If you do not scratch it, it will eventually give up. Unless of course, it turns out to be a mosquito biting your hand repeatedly - man, that mosquito must have had a field day in that meditation hall. I, alone, had six bites on my hand, and there were 49 other people to feast on...but I digress. The point is: itches stop, both real ones and figurative ones. And when we stop paying attention to the things that bother us, they go away...oh wait, everything does! So dually speaking, when we stop clutching the good things, we let go of the fear of losing them. And when they pass, we say, oh well...that was nice while it lasted. And instead of being sad about the loss, we note the good it has left behind and remember that everything happens for a reason. When making a conscious effort to choose to deal with life's ups and downs this way, we ingrain in ourselves this ability and it becomes easier, and soon natural.

The Universe will give us stress and conflict and challenges. And romance and triumph and ecstasy! But, most importantly, She gives us Love and compassion and unity, and those are the ones that are unceasing. Those are the qualities that flow naturally from within and without. Those are the qualities of that true happiness that exists, too often lying dormant, within us all. None of us is without those very Godly qualities, whether we know it or not. Whether we have everything or nothing, we always have our own/collective indwelling Divinity. If you have absorbed nothing from this expression of mine until now, at least hear this: We ARE compassion. We ARE Love. And we ARE all One. Be those things outwardly, and all else necessary will follow.

Our world is changing.
Be ready for it by being a positive contribution to it. She needs You.


28 August 2008